What are the common pitfalls to avoid when coding a PHP website for online pet shops?

Common pitfalls to avoid when coding a PHP website for online pet shops include not properly sanitizing user input, failing to secure sensitive data, and neglecting to implement proper error handling. To properly sanitize user input in PHP, you can use the htmlspecialchars() function to prevent cross-site scripting attacks:

$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];
$clean_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input);
```

To secure sensitive data, you should encrypt passwords using a strong hashing algorithm like bcrypt:

```php
$password = $_POST['password'];
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);
```

To implement proper error handling, you can use try-catch blocks to catch and handle exceptions:

```php
try {
    // code that may throw an exception
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'An error occurred: ' . $e->getMessage();
}